Search results for: "Concentration"

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  2. Creating a World of Concentration
     … We’re trying to bring into being a state of concentration to begin with, and it requires two qualities of mind—one is serenity and the other is insight—to try to calm the body down, calm the mind down. There are basically two ways of doing this. One is just to give the mind something to focus on that it likes, and it … 
  3. Don’t Leak Out Your Ears & Eyes
     … This destroys our concentration. And it’s hard to tell which happens first, whether the concentration is destroyed first or the hunger comes first. You’ve got to learn how to combine your meditation with restraint of the senses. Now, restraint of the senses works when you have a good sense of being mindful of the body. This can either be mindful of the … 
  4. Equanimity & Exertion
     … Sometimes you hear about the dangers of concentration, but the Buddha never talked in those terms. The one danger he mentioned is that you get good at it and then you don’t move on to use the concentration for gaining insight. But there’s nothing wrong with getting good at the concentration. In fact, it’s absolutely necessary. He says that without that … 
  5. To Be Debt Free
     … Then there’s the issue of respect for the Triple Training and respect for concentration. It’s worth noting that concentration is actually part of the Triple Training. The Triple Training is training in heightened virtue, what’s called heightened mind—which is basically the mind in right concentration—and then heightened discernment. But then, in the verse, the Buddha goes back and emphasizes … 
  6. Metacognition
     … When the Buddha gives his examples for the kind of discernment that develops out of concentration, he says that first you’ve got to get really good at the concentration. So let the mind mature. Then, when it’s mature, you can observe it. Here again, metacognition: You step back a bit and you notice how the concentration is fabricated, how it’s composed … 
  7. Greed & Distress with Reference to the World
    The Buddha’s formula for right mindfulness contains his instructions on how to get the mind into right concentration, and it contains two verbs. In other words, there are two activities that we do. One is dwelling. The word viharati, to dwell, can also mean to keep doing something. Here we dwell with the breath, the body in and of itself, just as you … 
  8. Intelligent Effort
     … So you have to be careful about what you take in, because it can destroy good states of concentration. Remember, concentration is something put together. It’s fabricated. Its nature is to slip away. So we have to be constantly shoring it up, protecting it. Have a sense of its value. Ajaan Lee’s image is of a dish of food. You want to … 
  9. Dangers Outside & In
     … Then you get the mind into concentration because the mind needs food, and if it doesn’t have the food of the pleasure of concentration, it’s going to go feeding off other things. This is when you learn that you can’t really trust yourself. Often, when the food that you can get through virtuous behavior isn’t readily available, a lot of … 
  10. All Eye
    All Eye December 11, 2022 When the Buddha defines concentration, or samadhi, he defines it as cittass’ekaggata. Sometimes that term is translated as one-pointedness of mind. Eka would be one, and agga is often thought to mean point, but agga doesn’t mean point. It means the summit of something, like the ridge on a roof or the summit of a mountain … 
  11. The Equanimity that Doesn’t Give Up
     … So as the concentration develops, you can ask yourself, “What here in the concentration is a disturbance? What can I let go?” That lightens the burden of the concentration and actually makes it more solid once you’ve let it go. That way you’ve got concentration working together with discernment. All of these qualities—conviction, persistence, mindfulness, concentration, and discernment—are strengths. They … 
  12. Take Your Time
     … You’re also working on that phrase that’s at the beginning of the description of right concentration: “secluded from unskillful qualities,” *vivicce’va akusalehi dhammehi. *You’re putting up a protection against the things that would pull you out of the concentration. What are those unskillful qualities? They start with wrong view and go through wrong resolve, wrong speech, wrong action, wrong livelihood … 
  13. Delight in the Breath
     … A major part of the path is right concentration. It’s ironic: In a lot of Western Dhamma circles in particular, people are warned off from concentration. They say, “Watch out. You’re going to get stuck on concentration and you won’t gain any insight.” But as the Buddha said, if you’re not stuck on concentration, you’re going to the go … 
  14. The Self-correcting Mind
     … If you just stay with the concentration, you’re going to fall into laziness. If you just stay with trying to energize yourself, you get restless and worked up. If you just stay with equanimity you never really get into the proper concentration that would count as right concentration. Things just arise and pass away, and they just arise and pass away. That’s … 
  15. The Middle Way
     … What would lie in the middle? He remembered a time when he was young and he had spontaneously entered in a strong state of concentration while sitting under a tree. The question arose in his mind, “Could that be the path?” And the answer came, “Yes.” “Then why am I afraid of that pleasure that comes with that state of concentration? There’s nothing … 
  16. Changing Your Mind
     … So even though it requires work and you see all too clearly that your concentration is inconstant, that doesn’t mean you just give it up and say, “Well, that’s my insight—concentration is inconstant.” You’ve got to fight it. It’s like the student of the Zen master in Minneapolis. The student was going to come out to Hollywood to make … 
  17. Mind Reading
     … How do you make sure that you don’t get distracted by the little nibbling thoughts? And secondly, how do you learn how to analyze your concentration? Because as you get deeper into concentration, it’s not simply a matter of just using more force. You have to understand, “What is it that I’m holding on to in this level of concentration that … 
  18. Tenacity
     … This is why the Buddha stressed the principle of respect for concentration, having some trust in your concentration—not that everything that pops into your mind as you sit here meditating is going to be reliable, but at the very least, when you’re mindful and centered, you’re a lot more likely to get good responses, good inspirations out of the mind than … 
  19. Asalha Puja – Completeness
     … This is what we’re trying to practice right now, working on right mindfulness, right effort, right concentration, to see if we can bring out some completeness to our minds as well. Ajaan Maha Boowa once said that the fact that we’re suffering shows that there’s a lack someplace in our understanding, in our concentration, in our mindfulness. So as we practice … 
  20. Make a Difference
     … And those are exemplified by getting the mind into concentration. There’s a very clear and direct connection here between right resolve and right concentration. One, in the Buddha’s analysis of what counts as mundane right resolve and transcendent right resolve, transcendent right resolve is any directed thought and evaluation that helps get the mind to settle down. Two, the definition of right … 
  21. No One Size Fits All
     … This applies both to concentration and to insight. Although it is true that the Buddha recommended breath meditation as generally the best meditation topic, he recognized that not everyone could get his or her mind to settle down with the breath. There were some people who needed to focus on the unattractiveness of the body; others, on recollecting the Buddha or the brahmaviharas. Concentration … 
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